Podcast
The God Learners
Hosted by The God Learners · EN
A podcast about gaming in Glorantha in which we cover news and discuss topics about RuneQuest, QuestWorlds, and other related games such as 13th Age Glorantha, King of Dragon Pass, Six Ages, The Gods War, or Khan of Khans.
11episodes
Episodes
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Episode 37: Life and Traditions Under the Sun Dome
3w ago01:21:10Tap to summarizeOur Guests For this episode we welcome Malin and CJ, which Ludo met in person at ChaosiumCon UK 2025. The book we’re talking about is “Life and Traditions under the Sun Dome” Ludo also took so long to edit this episode that Malin and CJ’s next books are already out: “Three Doors to Your Heart” and “Uleria Loves You” Malin is on Bluesky and has a Patreon CJ is also on Bluesky Show Notes Things we discussed in this episode: Malin and CJ published a book about Life and Traditions of the Sun Dome because they’ve been playing there for a while. Malin got into Glorantha via CJ, and became fascinated by stuff in Cults of Terror. CJ got into Glorantha via some people talking about RuneQuest and its cultures, religions, weird spells, and “walking tapirs”. After playing in Pavis and the Big Rubble, CJ bought RQ3 and some RQ2. The Dragon Pass board game Playing near Sun County in HeroQuest, with the Cradle scenario. CJ bought the RQ3 Sun County book, reading it directly in the post office. It was hard to get a group going. The “Life and Traditions” book is a “more detailed” Sun County, compatible with previous official material (Sun County) and JC material (Black Spear, Sandheart). Many people have written stuff in that area, it’s important to honour that. Back in the day, it felt like Sun County was more “bronze age” and exotic than Sartar, which felt more “celtic” and common. Research for the book included a lot of Bronze Age history. Big spears, shield walls, and hoplites! Back in the day, there wasn’t much material on Sartar. A lot of books were out of print, and in piracy was the only way to access them. Very trusting people who mail their copy of Griffin Mountain to strangers to read and send back! Sun County was a “standalone” book and setting, easier to grasp than other places in Glorantha. To secular Sweden, religious fanaticism is exotic! The reason for the “Life and Traditions” book is that many players have questions… sometimes weird questions… Malin wanted to emulate the “Daily Life in <place>” children books about ancient Egypt or Greece: what is it to live in these places and times? Also, a desire to answer questions to the players who didn’t know Glorantha. Malin loves making house rules and handouts! A character wants to get married? Write a handout about property rights! “It escalates so fast!” Between different regions of Genertela there are different rules and cultures. Sun County should feel different from Sartar. “RuneQuest is a game for over-thinkers” CJ is a sociologist, so how does the class system work!? “Life and Traditions” has a bibliography! It’s serious work! It’s a xenophobic and misogynistic place but they have nice beaches. CJ looks at other countries with the same problems for reference, in addition to historical Bronze Age and Iron Age, and previous Gloranthan material. People are still people, and it’s interesting to see how people would react and behave in a place like Sun County. How to use this book? As an academic description of Sun County, or as a collection of articles to be skimmed and picked from as needed? “It should be read but not memorized”. “It’s a confidence builder”. Instead of adding more history and names and places, the book tries to just add more context to one already established place. Joerg likes the tables to “look around the house”. Ludo likes the random event table. Players can read the book, there is not much “secret information”. The bad stuff in Sun County: patriarchy, xenophobia, etc. How is that fun to play? Depends on the group… it can be treated as background vibe, or as the main theme. The book also shows how to play other types of characters. CJ tried to lean into the set parameters of the place, as established by prior material: Yelmalio is patriarchal, Ernalda is made into a subservient wife, and Zola Fel provides a good part of the fertility magic that Ernalda usually provides elsewhere, etc. Still had to “address the elephant in the room and make everyone feel welcome at the table”. CJ and Malin had several women characters in their campaign. What does that mean for them? How do they live in this society? CJ makes the good point that it’s like playing Call of Cthulhu in the default era of the 1920s, which is a “horribly racist” time in America. “The gamemaster has to address this with the group”, deciding how much to lean into it or address it. Ludo mentions Harlem Unbound as an example of leaning into the racism of the 1920s for Call of Cthulhu. Cool stuff in Sun County: as a foreigner, you interact with a very weird and insular society! An excuse for sending your PCs to Sun County is that the River of Cradles is strategically important! Do your players enjoy being “administratively frustrated”? The absurdity of Glorantha. The cool thing about Yelmalio is that he is NOT cool! “He’s a poser guy wearing shitloads of bling for compensating about all the things he cannot do!” Orlanthi cultists are like Tom Cruise. Yelmalions are played by William H. Macey. Another cool thing is that Sun County is very, very ancient. There are many very old archives and items to be found here. Ludo talks about how he would send his players there. CJ says it’s a good entry point into a new campaign: the place is semi-isolated, with a limited number of cults to choose from, etc. Great for newcomers. “If you want to play a trickster in Sun County, go ahead and try!” No need to go into complex clan/tribe relations here. You can play it like Star Wars/Andor, living in some oppressive society, or like NYPD Blues with Sandheart, or as some Iliad thing with lone people defending their outpost against the nomads. You don’t need to lean into “colonizers vs natives”. Custom rules for faction play: “It’s easier to reward your players when you have numbers on a paper”. Build a shrine to your god so you don’t have to commute! Characters built for intrigue and politics should have as much fun and input into the game as those built for combat. It’s still useful and interesting to track favours and standings even for non-political characters. Tracking even small-scale relationships in some situations like long-term travelling. Switching from RuneQuest to QuestWorlds. RQG starts breaking down the more you play, especially the experience system, which slows down to a crawl. Malin says QuestWorlds is better than HeroQuest. CJ says it used to break down with the bidding system. Malin gives advice for how to convert RQG characters to QW. QW is easier to make little subsystems for since it’s a lot less crunchy. Players had trouble phrasing their keywords, and coming up with flaws. RQG helped establish the “reality” of the fictional world before moving on to QW, which is very valuable. Nick Brooke’s “song book” for conventions and the “HeroWars Gaga” song. Gloranthan cookbooks! Do players behave differently when you change the system? Malin says she had to change her GMing style a lot. QW requires more narrative responsibilit...
Transcribe →Episode 36: The Reminiscences of Paulis Longvale (Part 2)
Dec 1101:36:35Tap to summarizeOur Guest We welcome once again Austin Conrad to the show! His website is Akhelas Get Treasures of Glorantha: Volume 2, one of the finest books on the Jonstown Compendium! (which we talked about in episode 31) Austin hopes to be “done soon” with his upcoming “Wolves of the Wild Hunt” book… that was a couple months ago and it’s not done yet The book will include slightly remastered previous materials such as The Quacken, and The Queen’s Star, plus new stuff about Gagarthi monsters! Show Notes Things that happened in this episode: Joerg reminds us what the Reminiscences of Paulis Longvale are… Listen to episode 34 if you haven’t already! Cults of Terror is “the gamemaster’s best friend” Also listen to episode 35 with Simon Phipp, specialist of Dorastor! Yes, YOU too can play a Thanatar cultist! Ludo summarizes the previous episode’s story Austin mentions the old Dorastor book, plus gives another shout out to Simon Phipp’s books Ludo goes on a short tangent about the name “Bilini” Austin lays down another argument about the Orlanthi really being Vikings We discuss the various motivations of the characters regarding Chaos, Dorastor, and the Lunar Empire Ludo has made a spreadsheet! He tries to figure out what are the chances of the Bilini king’s army against Razalkark’s army How cute are baby broos? Or baby Scorpion Men? Apparently Diana Probst has one of those in Stone and Bone, go check it out! We talk about battle tactics and “broo walls” How the hell do you recreate this story using RQ rules? Should we play using HeroQuest/QuestWorlds? (again) The phalanx rules suck? Is dual wielding better than using a shield? (We fumble around the convoluted RQG dual wielding rules) Rules terms inside the narrative text… what to make of it? Would you abstract the things we see in this story to “just a few rolls” in RuneQuest? Austin is being an asshole (his words! not mine!) How much plunder do you get from Chaos creatures? Giving a “personal touch” to plunder and gifts… or just add some jewels! Reselling gifts to buy actually useful stuff, like skills and spells! “WHERE IS MY MONEY?” and other things players say Ancient cultures versus transactional cultures Ea-Nasir name drop! Storm Bull cultists as a biker gang Austin mentions “A Short Detour” and the way we tried writing Chaos cultists as nuanced people Are Illuminates crazy assholes? Or are they people with feelings? Uleria is more powerful and bad-ass than we give her credit for Body horror with Uleria! Play Limbo! Austin has more conspiracy theories about the Celestial Court on his website! Vampires in Dorastor… do they have enough to eat? World of Darkness vampires vs Dresden Files vampires (also, Ludo mixes up Dresden Files and Laundry Files) Austin’s Harrek campaign, and the shenanigans the PCs are up to Give player characters cool or embarrassing epithets! The interesting framing of a Chaos-based narrative with a Lunar perspective Telmori vampires! Or vampires feeding on Telmori! Maybe both! The lost power of RQ2 vampires that can steal Rune magic when feeding off someone Rituals to get your magic items to trust you Fear mechanics in RuneQuest? There’s a difference between improvising and off-the-rails-improvising! RQ2 silver magic collars… they’re in every RQ2 story How do you keep prisoners? Suspicious tricksters! (aren’t they always?) Joerg tells us about Jojo The Bobo. Also, Bugs Bunny and the Puppeteer Troupe “We’re in Dorastor, but we’re getting…. human drama???!” Credits The intro music is “The Warbird” by Try-Tachion. Other music includes “Cinder and Smoke” and “Skyspeak“, along with audio from the FreeSound library.
Transcribe →Glorantha Initiation: Benjamin, Podcasts, Wikis, and Looking for the One Truth
Oct 2701:21:06Tap to summarizeWe are back with a long overdue Glorantha Initiation interview featuring twice the amount of French accents! We talked to Benjamin, aka Dasfynx, who is the webmaster of the (French) RuneQuest Wiki, and co-hosts the (also French) “Runecast” podcast with Gianni Vacca. Le Wiki du JDR RuneQuest Le Runecast (you can of course find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on whatever app you use to listen to podcasts!) Show Notes Here are the things we talk about in this episode! Ben’s podcast “Runecast” This is one of the three known “talk show” podcasts about Glorantha right now, the other one being the Finnish Dayzatarin tähtien alla (“Under the stars of Dayzatar”) Ben also runs the French RQWiki which started as a translation of Chaosium’s wiki. It started as just figuring out what tech was powering Chaosium’s website Then it was a small translation for Ben’s players And then other fans joined the effort… there are now extra things compared to the Chaosium version Any extra material on the wiki that is from the published material is reproduced with the approval of Studio Deadcrows, the French publisher for RQG Watching old adventure/sci-fi movies on VHS, and being pitched the Warhammer Fantasy RPG (WFRP) as similar to those movies Ben’s first purchased RPG books were from the Call of Cthulhu and World of Darkness lines, but we was busy playing sports and listening to rap, so he read the books but didn’t play them! This may be called “lonely fun” Only years after that one WFRP game did Ben finally find another gaming group playing the WEG Star Wars RPG Ben offered to GM Call of Cthulhu after that, which lasted for a handful of years, going through the Spawn of Azathoth campaign You too can learn geography and history by GMing Call of Cthulhu! It’s hard to find English or French RPG books while living in China, so Ben loaded up on many books whenever he would come home As a Roliste TV watcher (YouTube channel here), Ben learned that one host (Mathieu) is a big fan of RuneQuest, so Ben bought the latest edition… and didn’t like it! This is because the world wasn’t described enough for Ben to picture, so he bought the Glorantha Sourcebook… and didn’t like it either! Too many names and lists of things! It was the Bestiary that made Ben “get it”: each “monster” is actually coming from somewhere and have their place After that, Ben was deep into Glorantha and started reading more and more books about it Glorantha: a steep curve followed by a rabbit hole! Books are expensive so Ben got Gianni Vacca to explain things to him for free! Gianni is Ben’s co-host on the Runecast podcast Gianni is Ben’s Joerg, an old hands of Glorantha… actually even older than Joerg, since Gianni started with RQ2! Ben’s wiki and podcast are geared towards beginners Favourite thing about Glorantha: Dorastor, to make players suffer! See Simon Phipp’s “Secrets of Dorastor” (and other related books), and his interview episode on the show Sartar, because it’s an interesting place Next on Ben’s reading list are the Red Cow campaign books (book 1 and book 2) See also Ian Cooper’s Questworlds interview on the show Things Ben doesn’t like: the gray areas, because he likes to feel like he understands everything Ben asks Joerg what is the nature of the great compromise? Joerg explains how gods can break the compromise and act in Time We talk about avatars of gods also manifesting gods enough to endanger the Compromise, and how Chaos allows gods to get involved in Time Greg’s narrative framework of writing “in world” texts that give contradictory views and accounts The annoyance of “no answers” vs “multiple answers” King of Sartar is… a dense and complicated book GMing the French campaign “Children of the Flame” (Gianni is an author on it) This campaign helped show Ben what is possible in Glorantha It’s about the Dundealos tribe, near Swenville, after they have been replaced by the Lunar Entalos tribe… until the Dragonrise gives an opportunity to retake their lands Faction play, with various tribes, the Lunars, etc. There’s a map of Swenville! A good way to start in Glorantha is a good example: a scenario, a campaign, etc. The Sourcebook isn’t a good idea for beginners The GM pack or a campaign are better! (classic RQ2 campaigns, or newer ones from the Jonstown Compendium) Basically, start small! The French edition of RQG has one scenario in the rulebook, and one in the bestiary… something the English edition is lacking! Ludo briefly talks about his similarly failed encounters with Glorantha Ben reiterates how Glorantha is consistently deep and how he loves that about it Ben started just with the books for a while, but later discovered there are so many things about Glorantha on the internet! Shout-out to 7Tigers, who translates all the news and Well of Daliath content to French Also shout-out to Olivier from “Les Fils du Chaos” for helping correct the French RQWiki And shout-out to everybody else helping in their own way Ben asks Joerg about the Sky World and Joerg obliges! Ludo adds his take about the multi-shaped Sky World Ben still wants one final answer on everything! Joerg mentions the “blind men touching the elephant” tale, and Ben wants to see the elephant, not be one of the blend men We devolve into Jungian archetypes, and other tangents… We end with some quick-fire questions… Ben loves ducks! Credits The intro music is “Dancing Tiger” by Damscray. The outro music is “Islam Dream” by Serge Quadrado. Other audio is from the FreeSound library.
Transcribe →Episode 35: Secrets of Dorastor
May 23, 202501:28:27Tap to summarizeOur Guest Our guest this episode is Simon Phipp, author of Secrets of Dorastor, Secrets of Heroquesting, and author or contributor on many, many other books. Joerg sadly isn’t present this time: he was stuck on a highway somewhere in Germany waiting for auto-assistance. Show Notes Here are some various things we talk about in this episode: Getting started playing in Glorantha in 1982… which sounds like 15 years ago but apparently is a lot longer ago RuneQuest 2 (with Cults of Prax) was Simon’s first game Bud (from Bud’s RPG Review) recently said that it’s like being born with a silver spoon in your mouth Watching “World of Sports” and reading “The Iliad” as a kid… as one does Simon loves RQ2 for its scale and the visceral feeling you get from playing it Playing in Dorastor because it was nasty and unmapped in the early 80s The only source was the Paulis Longvale narrative from Cults of Terror Other GMs in Simon’s gaming circles were already playing in the “usual places” (Sartar, Prax, Pavis & The Big Rubble) We started our series on Paulis Longvale last episode! Running a Star Trek-like episodic campaign in and out of Dorastor, starting around 1985 Later, during the RuneQuest 3 era, Dorastor: Land of Doom was released Simon’s players accused him of knowing about the upcoming book’s contents! The pros & cons of playing in the vaguely defined Glorantha of the 80s vs the encyclopedic Glorantha of the 2010s The Dorastor: Land of Doom’s warning on the back cover is factually accurate… if you consider Simon, as a GM, as a big and ugly thing! Come to the Risklands! It’s great! The Chaos Nests of Genertela. They’re great too! Simon’s Dorastor has multiple Chaos Nests In his campaign, Simon’s players killed Razalkark, the king of the Broos, and occupied his fort… and then things got worse Chaotic True Dragons are apparently a bad thing? Simon tells us the story of Dorastor, including his own interpretation of the whole Nysalor/Gbaji/Arkat thing You may remember we discussed some of this with Bud in a previous episode Dorastor is filled with lots and lots of bad monsters! How do you get your players to go there? Simon’s Dorastor is a bit more nuanced than just “a place to kill monsters”: you can create alliances, do trade, and so on Simon gets bored to tears watching the Gloranthan metaplot unfold, with NPCs doing all the cool things HeroWars was very guilty of this Dorastor is so far away from Dragon Pass that we don’t care what Argrath is doing! Simon’s books contain many, many scenarios for Dorastor, plus many adventure seeds There are several layers to Dorastor: Go in, fight Chaos, come out (if you succeed enough times, become a Dorastor guide!) Interact with the big personalities of Dorastor (meet the Spider Queen, she’s great!) Storm Bull initiates must learn to prioritize Humakti broos! Dorastor ducks! Giant vampires! Relationship with the neighbours Don’t forget not all cults hate Chaos Simon likes messing with his players’ heads Chaotic people: they’re not as bad as you think? But watch out, you might quickly end up worshipping Thanatar if you don’t pay attention to Simon’s evil schemes Finding lost or secret things in Dorastor What makes heroes? Super-RuneQuest! and other high-level character stats… The most useless magic item ever… until it breaks your scenario! The problem of long running campaigns Acid! Poison! Ash elementals! Bathing in gorps! Ludo discovers that Cacodemon got Vomit Acid in RuneQuest 3 Fun with Chaos Features! Simon’s best anecdote: basilisks and mirrors! Designing encounter locations It’s not the GM’s job to know the solutions, it’s their job to setup problems Hair and fingernail elementals! Illumination in Dorastor: break the rules, become good, become evil? Come to Dorastor, it’s lovely, and you can become heroes! Credits The intro music is “The Warbird” by Try-Tachion. Other music includes “Cinder and Smoke” and “Skyspeak“, along with audio from the FreeSound library.
Transcribe →Episode 34: The Reminiscences of Paulis Longvale (Part 1)
Apr 16, 202501:25:53Tap to summarizeAfter too long a hiatus, we are finally back! Well, almost, because Ludo is an idiot and got the time zones wrong while setting up the recording, so Joerg shows up a bit later. Ludo apologizes for messing that up but hey, this is an episode about Chaos, so… Our Guest We welcome once again Austin Conrad to the show! His website is Akhelas Get Treasures of Glorantha: Volume 2, one of the finest books on the Jonstown Compendium! We actually talked about that book, and magical items in general, for episode 31 Austin’s ghost was summoned during our more recent episode on RuneQuest house rules Show Notes In this episode we chat about things like: Cult of Terror (RQ2, 1981) You can get it as a POD reprint or in PDF from Chaosium Dorastor: Land of Doom (RQ3, 1993) The Cults of Runequest sourcebooks (available here from Chaosium) Shadows on the Borderlands (RQ3, 1993) The first time the Gloranthan cosmology and history is presented in one text Worshipping Mallia as a non-Chaos deity, in a propitiatory way King of Dragon Pass RuneQuest Warlords Razalkark, the King of the Broos, and a “good boy” Cults of Prax (RQ2, 1979) and the tribulations of Biturian Varosh Our episode series on Biturian Varosh started back when we were the “Wind Words” podcast, and continued with guest Drew Baker early in the God Learners podcast The four philosophies and magic forms of Glorantha… plus a few more! Add you own! The usual suspects: the Guide to Glorantha, the Glorantha Sourcebook, and the Mythology book The entire cosmology and history of Glorantha in 10 pages! Boom! Done! Ludo’s favourite RuneQuest cover, by Jennell Jaquays (see the real wrap-around version!) A Gloranthan pronunciation guide! Can YOU pronounce Gloranthan deities’ names correctly? The Prosopaedia The Curse of Thed: it really sucks! Ludo got confused by his notes (“confusing notes” is a Chaotic feature!) “Reverse Chaos” was renamed “Curse of Thed” in RQG Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay features chaos corruption rules that affect the player characters, sometimes willingly We should be playing in Bilini and Dorastor, there’s a lot of fun stuff happening there! Is it Chaos, or Just Very Bad Thing? Simon Phipp’s Secrets of Dorastor and lines of books Our episode on Arkat, with guest Bud from Bud’s RPG Review The big-ass Genertela map Austin is supposedly being “very polite” in Ludo’s game about NOT becoming an assassin. Spoiler: a month later, Austin did in fact murder a long-standing NPC and initiated into the Eurmal Murderer cult… Wesley Crusher Ragnar Lodbrok and the TV show “Vikings” The Orlanthi as Vikings vs the Orlanthi as ancient Greeks Want to make your players go on a quest? Loan them magical items! The Lightbringers Summons and forcing it on your players Chaos as organized crime Mallia and pandemics… too soon, Joerg! Shenanigans with disease spirits! Dealing with trickster player characters… Scorpion Men: the other iconic Gloranthan bad guys? Beer With Teeth’s Stone and Bone 13th Age Glorantha‘s Scorpion Men illustrations Gagyx Two-Barb, Scorpion Queen The Footprint, another place of Chaos Food and water are tainted! Roll to find safe things to consume, or pack them! Making your own funky diseases Using the table of troll drink effects from Trollpak (RQ2, 1982) Differences in Chaos curses between RQ2 and RQG Paranoia in players, and nasty Chaotic features Xenohealing, the spell nobody misses, apparently Hashtag Not All Chaos! Adapting a combat scene environment to the baddies’ abilities… For instance: Scorpion Men can climb very well! Austin’s correct answer to Scorpion Men is “don’t” Milking Scorpion Men…. uugggh The players are always the baddies! Credits The intro music is “The Warbird” by Try-Tachion. Other music includes “Cinder and Smoke” and “Skyspeak“, along with audio from the FreeSound library.
Transcribe →
Episode 33: The House Rules of Sandheart
Dec 31, 202401:36:43Tap to summarizeWe said we were back from our summer break with episode 32, but we lied! Joerg’s laptop died and he was busy growing a moustache, and Ludo was ridiculously busy with work. Either way, we are back again, just in time for the end of the year! Our Guest This time we welcome Jon Webb again, who appeared on our show back in episode 6 along with Neil Gibson. Jon is of course the wonderful author of the equally wonderful “Sandheart” series of scenarios: Sandheart Volume 1: Tales of the Sun County Militia Sandheart Volume 2: The Corn Dolls & Fortunate Sun Sandheart Volume 3: Tradition Sandheart Volume 4: The God Skin & Mad Prax Disclaimer: the above links are affiliate links of course (please use them to support the show!) The Making of Sandheart Our first topic is the Sandheart series of scenarios (see links above) which, although they have been written and published a long time ago, we had not covered on the show before… better late than never! We chat with Jon about how Sandheart came to be, the strength of its campaign framework, moral choices, “street-level” adventures, designing problems for which you don’t know the solution, culture clashes between characters, custom heroquesting rules, and more. If you haven’t read or played Sandheart, there shouldn’t be any spoilers for you — only titillating previews of the sort of fun you can expect therein. Note that if you don’t plan on getting all four volumes of the series, we recommend getting volumes 1 and 3. The reason for this is that volume 3 is a scenario that spans multiple years, as the adventurers are tasked with guard duty for a recurring ritual. Getting volume 3 early will let you weave the first couple occurrences of the ritual into the first few adventures. House Rules and Custom Systems In the second and larger half of the episode, we exchange all kinds of ideas about tweaking and extending the RuneQuest rules. Among the things we talk about, in no particular order: Picking rules from different editions of RuneQuest Hit Points formulas Initiative systems and Strike Ranks Sorcery rules Experience checks and experience gain Resolving ties Failing Forward Combat effects and aiming at hit locations Custom hit location tables Shields Granularity of rules per activity Gritty tactical combat vs heroic scenes Average skill scores vs heroic skill scores Fighting styles and converting to other weapons Group rolls Adopting rules from Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition Chaotic corruption! Lingering emotions Caravan trading rules Going into a rabbit hole of research and math, and finding what a mechanic should be about Keeping custom mechanics into the “spirit” of the main system Post-coital pillow talk rules We also mention: Ludovic’s own adventure, “A Short Detour” Mythras Troika Dragonbane Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Traveller Alien RPG Credits The intro music is “The Warbird” by Try-Tachion. Other music includes “Cinder and Smoke” and “Skyspeak“, along with audio from the FreeSound library.
Transcribe →Episode 32: The Lunar Way
Aug 28, 202401:31:10Tap to summarizeOur Guests In this episode we welcome returning guests Evan Franke and J-M DeFoggi (who had to leave early because of Imperial Administration requirements). You would of course know Evan and J-M from our previous episodes with them: Chaos Rises! (episode 26 about 13th Age Glorantha) and Jackals and Ancient Worldbuilding (episode 19 about J-M’s Bronze Age fantasy adventure game, Jackals!) Our guests are also found in these fine places: The Exploring Glorantha Series on YouTube Lots of Iconic Production endeavours, including YouTube and Patreon. As we release this episode, Evan’s Red Moon and Warring Kingdoms is officially out! Go grab it now, it’s FREE! Show Notes Things we mention during this episode, in vague chronological order, include: TORG Shadows of Esteren The Arms of Nargash-Tor (for Palladium Fantasy) The Cults of RuneQuest books and, of course, The Lunar Way in particular You can read Ludo’s own reviews of these books here As always, we mention the usual Gloranthan sources: The Glorantha Sourcebook (or in PDF, or on DTRPG) The Guide to Glorantha (or in PDF, or on DTRPG) Our episodes on Furthest and Imther, and their corresponding books: Furthest: Crown Jewel of Tarsh Edge of Empire Are you using The Lunar Way mostly for PCs or NPCs? Themes of a Lunar scenario or campaign Citizens of the Lunar Empire Xena: Warrior Princess featuring many Greek gods The Red Goddess as a guest star in your campaign Glorantha, where everybody’s an Illuminated asshole, and nobody’s the good guy The Empire’s trading, culture, politics, etc. Star Wars Glorantha as a Manichean settings vs a nuanced setting The problem of the “simple” settings of our youth becoming more nuanced as we grow older RIFTS and the Coalition States The X-Men, Magneto, and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants Memorable Lunar villains The morality of the Lunar Empire The Lunar Empire as a pretty great place to live in, actually There’s no fairness and civil rights in the Bronze Age The Lunar Empire as the Roman Empire The human flaws and administrative weight of the Lunar Empire The Crimson Bat was self-defence! Struggling to show the Lunar Empire as a nuanced faction Using the USA as a model for the Lunar Empire The editorial history of the Lunars in RuneQuest publications White Bear & Red Moon Harrek the Berserk is “not a great guy!” Beatpot Aelrwin Argrath is up to no good, meddling with stuff he shouldn’t Evan is available for rent as a guest Argrath Black Spear, and Nick Brooke’s take on Argrath Alexander The Great Sartar Griffin Mountain and Strangers in Prax Our favourite cults in the Lunar Way The Seven Mothers as the “Justice League cult” The awesomeness of the Crimson Bat cult The Nysalor/Gbaji chapter and its fourth-wall breaking aside Crimson Bat feeders publishing city rankings for their “visits” The demonic cult of Yara Aranis, which is pretty much as bad as the Tusk Riders Maran Gor is bad too! Sheng Seleris, the Gloranthan Ghengis Khan The Carmanian Empire roughly explained Lunar Magic, and how to use it in play Getting the Glowline to fail, so you can land your Stormtroopers and AT-ATs Ghost heist at the Lunar Temple! Harry Potter and the Lunar College of Magic Questworlds and 13th Age Glorantha as alternate game systems for certain campaigns The fine points of Lunar phases There are no physics in Glorantha Dragon Pass is a distraction for the Lunar Empire, which is mostly worried about the Pentans Dart Competitions as a Jason Bourne spy-thriller Credits The intro music is “The Warbird” by Try-Tachion. Other music includes “Cinder and Smoke” and “Skyspeak“, along with audio from the FreeSound library.
Transcribe →Glorantha Initiation: Amber and Christian, Wolves, Book Problems, and Actual Play
Jun 3, 202401:32:37Tap to summarizeGuests Our guests for this new episode of the Glorantha Initiation series are Christian and Amber, from DMs After Dark! We chatted with them back in… (checks notes) November 2023! How time flies… you can find DMs After Dark in many places around the internet, including: YouTube and Twitch Facebook, Twitter, and Bluesky Amber has written a few things, including some short story in the Monstrous Feminine anthology, and can be found at the West Warwick Public Library where she curates the gaming collection. Christian has written and published several scenarios, including “Zennor & The Sins of St Senara” and “The Night Mother’s Moon“, for Call of Cthulhu, published by Stygian Fox. Show Notes In this episode we talk about, more or less: Luring Amber with promises of playing a werewolf (Telmori) Using Chalana Arroy for luring in the cleric-loving player, and shamans for the player who likes weird characters Animism, the Spirit World, and other gameplay elements that are fairly unique to Glorantha Starting with the Starter Set, then going to the Sourcebook Pacing actual play games, making it feel like sitting at an actual table RuneQuest grognards coming to help with the rules Christian has a “book problem”… Ludo can relate Using Six Seasons in Sartar as a way to start small and get all the PCs together Collaborative storytelling and world-building Reconciling player-created lore with “canon” lore Being mindful of players and the audience when preparing storylines, especially cult initiations leading into mythologies like the Unholy Trio, the Sex Pit, etc. Amber acting as a GM assistant, especially in the early stages of preparation Ludo mentions his short story about Chalana Arroy and Mallia Ducks! Broos! Verisimilitude and/or realism to the Bronze Age and other antiquity history Approaching sensitive topics, and doing editorial work with players to match their comfort levels Casino Town! Cwim! The Crimson Bat! What makes sense in your Glorantha, and what seems out of place Early RQ2 dungeon crawling vs later RQ2 dungeons with ecologies and mythologies Understand the vibe of the system over the rules of the system Mary Renault’s The King Must Die and The Bull From The Sea, as good sources for getting a grasp on the antiquity RuneQuest’s crunchy combat system, with its many moving parts and possible combinations A wild mention of Shadows of Esteren makes Ludo happy! Telmori lore! Of course we mention Brian Duguid’s Children of Hykim (see also our interview episode with Brian) Credits The photo of the red deer used in the title image is by Michael Brace. The intro music is “Dancing Tiger” by Damscray. The outro music is “Islam Dream” by Serge Quadrado. Other audio is from the FreeSound library.
Transcribe →Episode 31: Treasures of Glorantha
May 3, 202401:36:37Tap to summarizeA new episode is out but Joerg still doesn’t have his replacement laptop so there are no detailed show notes again! Our Guest We welcome the ever prolific Austin Conrad back on the show to talk about his new book which is all about magic items. Links to Austin’s stuff: Treasures of Glorantha Volume 2: Relics of the Second Age Treasures of Glorantha Volume 1: Dragon Pass Note that the above are affiliate links — please use them, thank you! You can also get the old Plunder book for RuneQuest 2nd edition in PDF and in POD from Chaosium. Credits The intro music is “The Warbird” by Try-Tachion. Other music includes “Cinder and Smoke” and “Skyspeak“, along with audio from the FreeSound library.
Transcribe →Episode 30: Questworlds Glorantha
Mar 18, 202401:38:23Tap to summarizeShow Notes Joerg is still without a computer, so not only are there no detailed show notes again, but he’s not here to stop me from giving a clickbaity title to this episode! Because, indeed, we have zero news about a Questworld Glorantha book… if anything, it’s the contrary. But what we do have for you is Ian Cooper as our guest! Ian comes on the podcast to talk to us about the imminently coming Questworlds. We talk about what it is, what it isn’t, how its mechanics work, and what it’s good for. You can find Questworlds’ free SRD here. You can find Ian on Mastodon here, on Bluesky here, and on Twitter here. We also chat about the game’s history as Hero Wars and then HeroQuest (1st and 2nd editions). Ian tells us about his Red Cow campaign books, The Coming Storm and The Eleven Lights, and what happens in the unreleased sequels that he’s played through. We talk about Greg Stafford’s design philosophy and involvement in the early days of the product line, the differences between the other product lines, and more! Of course, it’s not a zero-sum game, so Ian also makes a point that you can play some games with RuneQuest, and some other games with Questworlds… it’s all about the sort of experience you want for a given story. Credits The intro music is “The Warbird” by Try-Tachion. Other music includes “Cinder and Smoke” and “Skyspeak“, along with audio from the FreeSound library.
Transcribe →